Description:

LCIF was founded by Funding London and Capital Enterprise with an initial £25m from the Mayor of London’s Growing Places Fund. It is chaired by Capital Enterprise CEO John Spindler and was officially launched on December 2014 by London mayor Boris Johnson.

Investment criteria:

Targeted at young businesses in the science, technology and digital sectors, LCIF co-invests in seed rounds of between £250,000 and £1m alongside Wellington Partners, Crowdcube, AngelLab, London Business Angels, Playfair Capital and FireStartr. Investee companies must be based in London and have the potential to create new jobs in the capital. If an investee company is linked to Capital Enterprise, its funding application will be fast-tracked. The fund’s main goal is to enable companies in a position to raise finance to secure significantly more so that they are in a stronger position to scale the business rapidly.

Size of fund:

£85m

Portfolio company:

Marking its second ever investment, in February 2015 the LCIF participated in a £617,000 round in Captive Media alongside angel network London Business Angels. A finalist at the Startups Awards 2014 in the Innovative Business of the Year category, Captive Media specialises in washroom advertising – using patented screens to display feature games above urinals which are controlled by urinating. Leading brands such as Lynx and Captain Morgan’s have already run advertising campaigns with the company and the product is now installed in 50 venues globally.